Corpus
Christi - Year CLuke 9:11-17

Understanding and appreciating the Mass

We
all know that the Feast of the Body and Blood of
Christ refers to the Mass or the Eucharist that
we are now celebrating. In celebrating such a feast,
it is very appropriate that we look at some aspects
of what the Mass means for us practicing Catholics.

I
have two Protestant pastor friends who truly envy
us because they tell me that having attended our
Masses many times, they have found the order and
the rituals to be very beautiful and meaningful.
They say, “How I wish our Sunday Services
too have such beautiful rituals and that we are
as strong and clear in our beliefs, that what we
receive is really the Body and Blood of Christ.”

If
we were to take a survey of ourselves, I wonder
how many of us here would see the beauty of our
Mass as these Protestant friends of mine do. What
do you think the results of the survey would show?
My guess is that many of us would classify our Mass
as “boring.” Others would find our Mass
a routine or perhaps simply an obligation to fulfil.
How many of us, do you think would find our Mass
to be beautiful and meaningful, and that it is something
we look forward to because we want to be nourished
by the Body and Blood of Christ? How many of us
would find the Mass the climax of our week, if we
are those who attend only Sunday Masses, or the
climax of each day, if we attend daily Masses?

I
still remember vividly how one of my brothers, many
years ago, rushed back from Mass one Sunday, beaming
and looking very excited. And as soon as he entered
the house, he said, “Father so and so was
really very good at Mass.” “Why?”
I asked. “His homily was very good,”
he immediately replied. “What did he say?”
My brother, caught by surprise said, “Er,
Er, I cannot remember, but the main thing is he
preached for only five minutes!”

My brothers and sisters in Christ, I am sure my
brother is not the only one who feels that way.
It might be good for us to ask ourselves today,
“Why do we equate a good Mass with a good
homily, particularly if it is short?” “Why
is Mass boring and routine for so many of us?”
We all know that after the homily, we say the “I
Believe” together. Some time ago in the old
St Ignatius Church, perhaps in the 12.00 noon Mass,
something unusual happened. When I finished my homily,
for one reason for another, I was a bit distracted.
I then said to the congregation, “And so,
let us now renew our faith in God, as we say, ‘I
confess to almighty God, and to you my brothers
and sisters. . .” You know what? The whole
congregation simply followed me and recited the
whole “I Confess” right through fluently
and without any pause. During the Offertory, I somehow
felt something was not quite right. So, I called
one of the altar servers and asked him. I said,
“Zac, did I say the “I Confess”
or the “I Believe” after my homily?”
He said, “You said the I Confess.” Feeling
very embarrassed, I apologised to the congregation
at the end of the Mass. I said, “Today’s
Mass is a very special Mass, we repented twice,
once at the beginning of the Mass and again after
the homily!”

My brothers and sisters, one of the reasons why
we find Mass boring is because admittedly, some
of us preach boring homilies. And, this means that
we priests have to prepare more interesting and
more challenging homilies; homilies that touch and
move and are related to our daily lives. Believe
me, such homilies are not easy to produce. It not
only requires clear thinking, but also a lot of
inspiration from the Holy Spirit and intercessory
prayers to Our Lady. A great preacher like Archbishop
Fulton Sheen admits that he spends hours and hours
writing and re-writing his scripts. At times he
says, he would re-write what he wants to say in
public seven times.

However,
another reason why Mass could be boring is because
some of us are physically present at Mass, but our
minds and spirits are elsewhere. We respond by rote
without thinking, as in the “I Confess”
example that I just mentioned, but some of us don’t
even respond at all. Some of us simply murmur our
response while others simply grunt. Let us ask ourselves,
how many of us really respond and sing enthusiastically
during Mass? When we respond “Amen”
for example, we as a Christian community are actually
saying to God in one united voice, “Yes Lord,
we believe.” At Holy Communion, when the priest
or Holy Communion ministers say, “The Body
of Christ?” we are expected to respond “Amen”
clearly and distinctly. In responding “Amen,”
we are in effect saying, “Yes, I believe that
this is the Body of Christ.”

When
we sing hymns at Mass, we are worshipping our God
who is almighty and loving; we are praising and
reverencing Our Lord who has saved us from damnation;
we are pleading for the Holy Spirit to continue
to protect, guide and strengthen us in our daily
life. So, when we don’t sing, especially when
we know the hymns, what are we telling God? Are
we saying to Him, Lord, we love you, but we are
not in the mood of praising you today?

My
sisters and brothers, our human experiences tell
us that if we love someone, then we must show that
love in words and in deeds. Thus, if we as Catholics
claim and believe that the Mass is the climax of
the week where we worship God and receive Him personally
into our hearts, then we must participate more fully
and wholeheartedly with reverence and devotion in
each and every Mass. In fact, we must try to come
early to prepare ourselves to be more present to
receive God, and not drift into the routine of the
Mass so easily.

While I fully agree and understand that a good homily
is important for a Mass, let us not forget that
the other 90% of the Mass is also crucial. The order
of the Mass in itself is already very beautiful.
The words and expressions used in all the prayers
have very beautiful, powerful and rich meanings
about the struggles and the joys, the desires and
the hopes of God for us, and us for God. All these
have been preserved and passed down to us, as the
rich heritage and tradition of our Christian faith.
The Eucharistic Prayer II that we use so often is
more than 1700 years old, and has been passed down
to us. When the priest says, “Take this all
of you and eat it: this is my body which will be
given up for you and take this all of you and drink
from it, this is the cup of my blood, etc.”
during Mass, he is actually, as we heard in today’s
Gospel using the words that Jesus Himself said during
the Last Supper.” And this is 2000 years of
tradition.

My brothers and sisters, if we have a very high
tech computer that can do a lot of things for us,
but it is just that we are not interested in computers
and are satisfied with our typewriters, then we
cannot blame the computers for being useless and
boring. If we look at Michaelangelo’s master
paintings on the walls of the museums in Rome and
find nothing very great in them, then we cannot
blame Michaelangelo for not painting them to our
liking and taste. So also, if we miss out on the
beauty and the rich meanings that are contained
in the beautiful expressions of the prayers that
are said and the hymns that are sung during Mass,
then the focus should not be why is our Mass so
boring, but why are we not personally appreciating
the prayers that are said and sung.

Saying
all these things does not absolve us priests from
our duty of trying to prepare good homilies or saying
a Mass that is more meaningful for us. However,
on this Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, it
is important for us to once again renew our love
for God in the Eucharist. All of us, without exception,
must learn to love the Mass and teach our children
to love the Mass.

Having
said all this, I am sure some of us would still
find another reason to say that the Mass is boring
and that we don’t understand the ritual meaning
of the Mass. Yes, this is often the case and we
admit that the Church and priests have failed in
different ways to teach you the ritual meaning of
the Mass. While this is true, we cannot say that
no efforts have been made towards helping us understand
the Mass more fully. Over the years many talks and
seminars have been organised in our Parish and in
the Archdiocese, especially in the Pastoral Institute
to help us appreciate the Mass more fully. Today,
at our Singapore Eucharistic Congress in the indoor
stadium, everyone received a copy of the “Our
Sunday Eucharist – We Want to See the Face
of the Lord,” booklet. This booklet is meant
for us to use it over eight days of personal or
family reflection on the Eucharist so that we can
deepen our appreciation of the Eucharist. I hope
such a booklet will be put to good use by us.

My brothers and sisters, we are limited by time
during a homily to go into many aspects of a topic
on which we preach. Let me simply conclude by reminding
ourselves of our personal responsibilities to make
each Mass that we attend a meaningful one. God is
present to us in many very special ways during Mass.
He wants to forgive us, when we pray the “I
confess,” “Lord Have Mercy,” and
when we pray, “Lamb of God you take away the
sins of the world, have mercy on us.” God
is specially present to us when the Gospel is proclaimed.
God is present in His Word to teach us to live a
more Christian life as though He Himself is proclaiming
the Word to us in front of all of us. In so doing,
God wants to encourage and strengthen us in our
struggles in life, and to give us assurance and
hope that when we die we return to Him and will
be with Him forever. God too is specially present
to us in Holy Communion. When we receive Him at
Holy Communion, God Our Lord comes into us and resides
in our hearts in a very physical and personal way.
Frankly, if we look at the immense blessings that
God has constantly been giving us, we can only be
lost for words. Thus, we can only ask Him to forgive
us all the times when we have taken His precious
gift of the Mass for granted. And on this Feast
of the most precious Body and Blood of Christ we
can only say, “Lord feed us, Lord strengthen
us, Lord may we, from now on, treasure you more
fully and perfectly in the celebration of our Mass.”
.